Ikigai by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia (Chapterwise summary and quotes)
Chapter 1
Ikigai means ‘reason to live’ everyone should have their own Ikigai that motivates them to get out of bed in the morning. People in Okinawa and other blue zones (geographic regions where people live the longest): suffer fewer chronic illness, enjoy enviable levels of vitality and health, have fewer free radicals, maintains higher levels of sexual hormones until much later in life, and the rate of dementia is below average. According to scientists, the key to longevity is diet, exercise, finding a purpose in life, and forming strong social ties. There is a term in Japan called, “Hera hachi bu” which means fill your belly till 80 percent, a trick Japanese people use to eat less is by serving foods in a small dish.
Chapter 2
There’s a saying, “mens sana in corpore sano” a sound mind in a sound body, it tells us that both mind and body are important. Just as our body needs to work out our brain needs to work out as well, we need to expose ourselves to change and get outside our comfort zone, things might be difficult during the beginning but it will get better as we keep doing it, repetition is very crucial. Stress is a killer, studies have found that stress is the cause most of diseases, it even causes people to look old and feel old. We have to get out of autopilot mode and be mindful of our actions and activities. A low level of stress is a good thing, as it keeps us motivated and determined. Small changes that make a big difference, walking at least 20 miles a day, using stairs instead of elevators, participating in social activities, replacing junk food with fruits, getting seven-nine hours of sleep (more or less is not good), joining a sports team, detecting daily bad habits and replacing them with good ones. When we sleep we generate melatonin, which is a powerful antioxidant that keeps our skin radiant and helps us to live longer. Benefits of melatonin are: it strengthens the immune system, contains an element that protects against cancer, natural production of insulin, slows Alzheimer’s disease, prevents osteoporosis and fights heart disease, and many more.
Chapter 3
To live life fully we need to be happy and do things that give us fulfillment, we need to imagine ourselves on the deathbed and do things that we will be happy about laying on the deathbed that I lived a good life and I don’t have any regrets. Principals of Morita's therapy, don’t avoid your feelings accept them instead and grow through them, do what you should the doing recovery will take place on its own, and discover your life’s purpose. We have to love the world, it’s imperfect of course but filled with ample opportunities.
Chapter 4
We need to be doing things that make us forget the count of time, that make us feel better We need to give up things that give us instant pleasure such as eating too much, watching tv for things that are really beneficial for us in the long run. We need to do things that challenge us and to do that we need to go out of our comfort zone ( but remember not to choose a task that is too difficult otherwise we won’t have the skill set and we will easily get bored). We need to have a clear vision towards our goal that’s how we will reach the flow state. Small uncomfortable steps, in the beginning, will take the anxiety away. We need to focus on a single task instead of multitasking, studies show us that switching back and forth between tasks makes us less productive. Studies show that focusing on more tasks lowers our productivity level by more than 60%. Japanese are extremely dedicated and hardworking. Steve Jobs was a big fan of Japan and the people who worked there, he was fascinated by their skills and dedication that he ended up going there many more times after his first visit to meet the country’s artisans and engineers. The goal is to go into a state of flow, the goal is to find something and do it with everything we have got and reach a state of flow where we don’t get bored. When we are passionate about what we do the idea of stopping and retiring doesn’t even come to our mind. Csikszentmihalyi is a Japanese word that means microflow. In this, we have done a small task repeatedly and get better every time. We need to get comfortable with the small tasks. Meditation is a great way to clear our minds, it helps us to have more clarity and builds a calmness within us. We must have rituals for the process, when bigger tasks feel overwhelming the love of the process makes it easier. We need to figure out what we love from deep within us and in that way, we will find our ikigai.
Chapter 5
When you do what you love you don’t work you just live life. Along with a proper diet and exercise we need to have ikigai to keep ourselves busy. We need to have a purpose in life to push us forward.
Chapter 6
The secret to having a healthy life along with a proper diet and a healthy lifestyle is smiling and having a good time all the time. Celebrating is a huge part of the people in ogimi. The essentials to a happy life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. After several interviews we found that the secret to a long and healthy life is, not stressing or worrying, cultivating good habits, nurturing friendships every day, living an unhurried life, and being optimistic.
Chapter 7
Okinawa in Japan has been the place with the highest life expectancy in the world, experts say that Okinawa is the only province that doesn’t have a train station the residents walk or cycle to their destinations and the only province that follows the Japanese government’s recommendation of eating less than 10 grams of salt per day. Okinawans eat 206 different varieties of food and 18 varieties per day. More than 30% of their daily calories come from vegetables. They eat white rice every day and barely eat sugar, and if they do it’s cane sugar. Okinawans on average around 7 grams of salt per day compared to the 12 grams that the rest of the population in Japan consumes, they eat around 1785 calories per day compared to 2068 that the rest of Japan eats. Serving on many small plates makes us think that we’re eating a lot. Intaking fewer calories has a powerful protective effect against type2 diabetes, obesity, inflammation, hypertension, and other diseases. Okinawans are known for drinking green and white tea and they recommend everyone to drink it, Research has found several benefits of green tea such as, it controls cholesterol, lowers blood sugar levels, improves circulation, protects against flu, and has countless other benefits. and white tea is considered to be a natural product with the greatest antioxidant power in the world.
Chapter 8
Moving your body is very important, studies show that metabolism slows down 90% if you sit for 30 mins. Just moving and talking a walk helps more than we think. Yoga is very popular in Japan along with it they also have qigong and tai chi that they do daily to keep them healthy. Yoga leads us towards a healthy lifestyle. There are several styles of yoga such as Jnana yoga, karma yoga, Bhakti yoga, mantra yoga, kundalani yoga, raja yoga, and hatha yoga. There are many different types of yoga but all their main objectives are common which are, to bring us closer to our (human) nature, mental and physical purification, and to bring us closer to the Devine. Breathing is really important as we all know that it allows us to stay alive, a Chinese doctor Sun Simiao was a proponent of a technique called six healing sounds which involves the coordination of moment, breathing, and pronouncing sounds with the purpose of being our mind to a place of calm, the six words are Xu pronounced as shh, He pronounced as her, Si pronounced as sir, Chui pronounced as chwee, Hoo, pronounced like who, Xi pronounced like she.
Chapter 9
Resilience is very crucial, it makes a huge difference, we need to be focused on important things than urgent ones and that will keep the negativity away, we should realize that it is very easy to get carried away with our life pleasures and be enslaved by them. According to stoicism pleasures and comforts are fine as long as they don’t take control over us. we move from one thing to another very quickly and thus we are never satisfied but Pursuing these kinds of satisfaction won’t make us happy, what would really make us happy is the absence of negative emotions, such as anxiety fear, shame, and the presence of positive emotions. Buddism and stoicism teach us that the present is the only moment we will live in, we can not change anything in the past nor can we assume things for the future, Always have a plan b, for example, have multiple streams of income same goes for relationships have a small group of good friends with whom you can talk and hang out instead of having just one. Take small risks that have big rewards. Finally, we need to get rid of things that make us fragile we need to get rid of our negative emotions and be positive as much as we can we must live by our Ikigai and make the best out of every opportunity.